Page 165 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

As the Toba Wei had fostered Buddhism because they them-
selves were aliens on Chinese soil, so did the Liao and Chin, and
under their patronage there was a revival of the faith in North
China, as well as in the Sung domain itself. The twelve-sided pa-
goda of Fu-kung-ssu at Ying-hsicn in Shansi (1058) is one of the
few surviving examples of a major Sung pagoda, rich in detail,
dynamic in bracketing, noble in proportion. In the city of Ta-
t'ung in northern Shansi, a secondary capital under both Liao and
Chin, two important temples stand side-by-side: Lower Hua-
ycn-ssu(Fig. 181), completed in 1038 under the Liao, and still vir-
tually intact, and Upper Hua-yen-ssu, rebuilt after a fire in 1 140,
although the five great Buddhas were remade in the Ming Dy-
nasty and the frescoes repainted late in the nineteenth century. At
Lower Hua-yen-ssu, not only is the sculpture original but the
walls retain the original sutra cases fashioned like scaled-down pa-
vilions, their intricate carpentry providing a rare example of the
style of the period. In this sumptuous shrine, architect and sculp-
tor have combined their arts in the service of theology to create a
fabulous Buddha world by which the worshipper, on entering the
hall, is surrounded and enveloped. Buddhas, bodhisattvas, guardi-
ans, and arhats take their apportioned place in a gigantic three-
dimensional mandala, the total effect ofwhich is to saturate the eye,
and the mind of the believer, with the manifold and all-embracing
powers of God.
One of the most impressive—and deceptive—examples of Liao- SCULPTURE
Chin sculpture is the set of pottery figures of lohan (arhats) which
were found some years ago in a cave at I-chou near Peking. One is
in the British Museum, five others in Western collections. The
vigorous modelling, the dignity and realism, and above all the
three-colour glaze, all suggested a T'ang date at a time when the
possibility of art of any quality being produced under the Liao and
Chin was not seriously considered. But it is now known that
North China at this time was the centre of a flourishing culture in
which the traditions of T'ang art were preserved, with subtle dif-
ferences, not only in sculpture but also in ceramics, and there is no
disgrace in assigning them to the Liao or Chin. These figures, and
others executed in dry lacquer, are not so much portraits of indi-
vidual monks as expressions of a variety of spiritual states. In the
face of the young arhat in the Nelson Gallery is portrayed all the in-
ward struggle, the intensity of concentration, of the meditative
sects of which Ch'an was the chief. When we turn to the figure in
the Metropolitan Museum, we see, in the bony skull, lined fea-
tures, and deep-set eyes of an old man, the outcome of that strug- 180 Lohan. Pottery covered with frreen
and brownish-yellow glaze From I-
gle; it has taken its toll of the flesh, but the spirit has emerged se-
chou. Hopei. Liao Dyruity. tenth to
rene and triumphant. eleventh century.
But not all sculpture of this period was an archaistic revival or a
prolongation of the T'ang tradition. The figures in wood and
plaster represent an evolution beyond the T'ang style. The Bud-
dhas and bodhisattvas are still fully modelled—even to the extent of
a fleshiness that can be displeasing—but what they have lost in dy-
namic energy they gain in a new splendour of effect. They stand
145